Mission No. 1: Stop The Wildcat
So when roughly 97.9 percent of your offense ends up with a running back getting the ball (that may be a SLIGHT exaggeration), it goes without saying that stopping the run is key. When you add in the all-interesting “Wildcat” formation and the team that brought it back to popularity last season, it becomes even more important. This is not lost on the New York Jets.
“It’s a pain in the tail,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said. “It’s just a body punch. It takes preparation time. They may run it, they may not run it. But you’ve got to be prepared for it . . . If you’re not . . . they’re going to run that all day long.”
Discipline, Ellis said, is the key.
“Staying in your gaps, trusting your eyes,” said Ellis, who in his 10th season is the longest-tenured Jet. “Don’t try to go way over there to make the play. Just be disciplined and you should be OK.
” . . . They use that to kind of throw you off so when they get into running their plays, you’re thinking of how you’re going to stop the Wildcat. So for us, we’ve just got to hold up their running. We can’t give up no big plays.”
Last year, Rex’s Ravens responded (say THAT 5 times fast!) to the Dolphins and the Wildcat rather strongly. That is to say, they completely dominated then-QB Chad Pennington and the Fish and forced them into turnover after turnover. One of the reasons I’m so confident the Jets will win this game is Rex’s ability to handle the specialty formation. It goes without saying that they will play chess to Chad Henne’s checkers, but their ability to stop Ronnie Brown and his supporting cast will be the difference to winning this game.
How do you guys think they’ll stop him? How big will Calvin Pace’s return be?
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the way to beat the wildcat is to key on the blocking schemes of the o linemen. where they go, the ball usually follows. of course that sounds pretty simple, but being disciplined and staying in your gaps when your not sure who has the ball is not that easy.
The keys is too not let the running backs get to the corners.If you can force the RB to stay inside where your defensive help is you controll the wild cat and limit its big play capabilities.Over pursuit/running yourself out of the play is the way this formation can kill ya…GAP discipline is a must to stop it….
calvin pace is going to come out gunning
why do the jets get no respect, every game they have jets losing. that D is a beast. the O aint bad either.
john sec- exclusively follow the linemen and you get killed by any counter-style play where the linemen all down-block. gap discipline would seem to be the best shot of stopping the wildcat. to stop a team that runs the option, each defender is assigned a man (i.e. you hit the fullback, you hit the quarterback, you hit the running back, whether each has the ball or not). the wildcat is more complicated than the option, and it contains WR reverses, counters and pass plays – but the element of defensive discipline comes into play with both. at least, thats my experience from playing high school football, which may not mean anything at all. gap discipline and performance (making the play when it comes to you, NOT missing a tackle and blowing your assignment) is crucial
We’re going to shut them out! I’m so glad to have Pace back.
Agree with Snakeman…
We should dominate this game from the defensive side of the ball. I would also argue that Miami’s defense is not on par with N.O., Tenn, or the Pats so we should hang in there.